Through Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative, the U.S. Government supports the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, which helps children in countries like Mozambique maximize their potential by staying healthy. Photo Credit: Kelly Ramundo/USAID.

Back in June, I posted here about the negative impacts of global undernutrition as my colleagues and I prepared for Feed the Future’s agriculture and food security Research Forum in Washington, D.C. This week, as I attend two meetings for the international Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement during U.N. General Assembly week in New York, I’m moved to reflect once again on the issue because, quite frankly, we can’t give it enough attention.

The numbers haven’t changed since my last post, nor should our sense of urgency. The fact remains that two billion people in the world do not consume enough nutrients to live healthy, productive lives; and nearly 200 million children under age 5 suffer from chronic undernutrition. To put that last number into perspective, that’s about 24 times the population of the densely inhabited city where these U.N. meetings are currently taking place. That’s 24 New York Cities full of little children who deserve a better future.

Letting those kids down is simply not an option. Children suffering from undernutrition during the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday face physical stunting and mental impairment that cannot be reversed. Later in life they experience poorer performance in school, which can lead to lower incomes in adulthood.

These statistics aren’t just sad; they’re unacceptable. That’s why, through Feed the Future and the Global Health Initiative, the United States Government is supporting country-owned programs that address the root causes of undernutrition and improve the future potential of millions of people. With our support, countries like Tanzania, Guatemala, Uganda, and Mozambique have made great strides in making nutrition a national priority, and we applaud their efforts. As a development professional and as a father, I couldn’t agree more.

To find out more about what the U.S. Government is doing to prevent global undernutrition, visit here.

2 Comments

I am from Tanzania a country located in Eastern part of Africa. Most of us live under $1 per day but that doesn’t mean that we are dumb or uneducated. As mentioned in the article above most of our kids are underfed and thus suffer a lot of diseases caused by luck of certain nutrition.

we have people who have started special programs for school children and those not, these people donate breakfast and lunch for the children. they are doing that so as to help them pay more attention to school works, this is because a child can think better in full stomach.

we have monthly special activities here in Tanzania, such events are “milk drinking week for the school children” and “sports week/days for the children”. privileged kids get these everyday but for most of us it is not affordable to give a glass of milk for your kid daily leave out the three daily meals.

i would like to personally invite donors to make a difference in our children because i believe not only are they the future generation but they are today’s generators as they make us think n perform better.